Son one had training wheels, took him a fair while to get confidence without. Son two had a balance bike as was off without training wheels very quickly. Son three is getting the balance bike, no training wheels. And all who ask are getting the same recommendation, balance bike for the win. Get rid of the training wheels ASAP, deal with the issues without training wheels for a while and real the benefits.

For sheldon brown, help your child balance by holding the shoulders/under arms, not the bike. Helps them learns how to balance sooner.

bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

I took my daughter to a local grassed park when I removed her trainers. It had a gentle slope and I would push her off at the top and get her going. Provided she kept pedalling just a bit she was fine. The slope helped momentum so she could balance. Just crashed at the bottom of the slope each time, but on the grass that was fine. About 10 slope runs the first day. Few meters first time. Then longer each time. Same again another two days over the next week or so. By then she was turning at the bottom of the slope and coming to graceful stops. Video on the iPhone to show mum helped with motivation.

Next were some flat paths and by then she was fine provided we steadied her to start off.

Really surprised how easy it was once the trainers were gone and she had to keep herself up. No I have trouble keeping up with her!

jaffaman wrote:I took my daughter to a local grassed park when I removed her trainers. It had a gentle slope and I would push her off at the top and get her going. Provided she kept pedalling just a bit she was fine.

Same with my daughter, took her to the local park, down the grassy slope so all she had to concentrate on was balance not pedalling to start with. Then I told her to keep pedalling as far as she could go before the grass friction slowed her, and she'd just put her feet down. 10-15 minutes of that and she was ready to go on the flat concrete, and she took to it like a champ.

It also helped that we did this with a bike that was slightly too small for her, so her legs could easily get on the ground for any "oh sh**" moments. Her newer bike that's the right frame size for her is waiting for her to get brave enough to try out sans wheels

When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

My eldest (nearly 6) is majorly lacking confidence when it comes to riding and has been very apprehensive about losing the training wheels (she didn't get the bike until she was 4).. She wants a new bike for her birthday at the end of May though, so I'm keen to use that as the motivator to get rid of the training wheels (and she has agreed with the caveat that new bike will not have any training wheels).

Middle child (3) also rides with training wheels, but is much more confident than his big sister so I will probably just take both of them down to the park, pull the training wheels off and get them started. Might even help if there is a bit of competition between them (It usually does with these two..)

My daughter was 2 last week and we got her a FirstBike. She's very tall (92cm, 97th percentile) so I thought I'd get away with not ordering the lowering kit, but she can only just put her toes down. So all we've done is push her around a bit so that she gets the feeling of sitting on the bike and holding the handlebars. Lowering kit has now been ordered.

I think she's slightly too young for it, last thing I want to do is force it and scare her away, but while she's keen we'll keep playing.

As often happens, the second kid gets rushed along to catch up with the bigger kid My 3.5 year old son had his first go without training wheels on the small bike his sister's grown out of, on the same gentle grassy slope I used for his sister, and he too took to it like a champ. No problems balancing and then pedalling with the hill and a push to get him started. But he's not as adventurous as his big sister, so while he did it just fine and rode on the road a bit without training wheels very well, this morning he decided to use his training wheel bike for our ride around the neighbourhood. My daughter is in a hurry to grow up, but he's happy to cruise along

When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

@cray: My girl and boy both got on the balance bike around 2.5 years. Don't rush it, and don't stress if it takes her til age 3 or more, kids will learn at their own pace, just make sure she enjoys it.

People advocate balance bikes first so kids can learn balancing, whereas pedalling is an easy skill to learn. I have no experience with this, but will say that bikes with training wheels opened up the neighbourhood for our kids. At least 2-3 days a week when I get home from work the kids will pester me to go for a ride. My 5.5 year old has been off training wheels for a while now, my 3.5 year old still rides on his training wheel bike but at least he's out there with us, them riding and me jogging so I can give them a push up the hills when needed. Little kids can still go slowly on training wheels but it's hard to slowly push a normal bike with a little one doing the piloting.

When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

For my kids I fitted a simple hook-clip thingy that I bent out of 6mm rod, wired it to a broom handle and hooked it onto the seat post. I then followed around behind. It gave adequate support to keep them upright and it meant that I could have them at reasonable speeds without Dad being right on their shoulder and it saved my back a lot of grief. It worked a treat and the kids learnt without ever scraping a knee.

I don't know if there ever was or is anything retailing but it seems such an obvious way.

My daughter got her balance bike at about 2.5 and my son before he was 2 (no way he could ride it but wanted to be like big sis). Both my kids are short-ish so its important to select the right balance bike as they all vary in shape and size. I took the opinion that I was happy to help/support them if they were a little too short at the start, they'd be big enough one day and the bike would be ready to go when they were. At 3.5 my daughter does an easy (somewhat wobbly) glide and my son 2.5) is almost gliding, kinda like a run. In any case, they love it.

We have a giant pre; great bike, I'd get one again. Normal bike components except the stem/bars, has a little tab that prevents bar spins. We also have an Avanti Lil Ripper; another good choice, I got this one second hand. All normal bike components, inc bars, stem (threadless). Seat is a little higher that the Pre (mostly due to seat design, not frame) and the bars spin 360.

cray- wrote:Just curious what age you all started your kids on the balance bikes?

My daughter was 2 last week and we got her a FirstBike. She's very tall (92cm, 97th percentile) so I thought I'd get away with not ordering the lowering kit, but she can only just put her toes down. So all we've done is push her around a bit so that she gets the feeling of sitting on the bike and holding the handlebars. Lowering kit has now been ordered.

I think she's slightly too young for it, last thing I want to do is force it and scare her away, but while she's keen we'll keep playing.

My daughter got one for her 2nd birthday. She's a shorty, so she couldnt quite manage sitting on the seat, but could walk it straddling the frame. It has seen little use in the 6 months she has had it, but im fine with that. She has probably just hit the height to be able to ride it with the seat fully down. I let her dictate how often she wants to use it. At the moment she prefers the little 4 wheeler plastic thing we got from target for $12, which is fine by me as she can use that inside. Quite happy for her to progress at her own pace. The only thing I was firm on is that she will never have training wheels (including bikes at grandparents houses).

master6 wrote: Moderators are like Club Handicappers; I often think they are wrong, but I dont want the job.

my 3+YO kid got a Target bike as a present and the wheels are kinda of a fixie type. Should I get it changed? or just remove the cranks and let her use it as a balance bike? I had to oil then loosen the nuts and all as its wheel is hard to turn. She always get stuck and need a push to keep going.

My son was 3 when we got him his first bike. He rode with training wheels for a while (probably a few months - I cant really remember) and I slowly raised them so he had increasing clearance with the trainers off the ground when he was upright but still steered tilted over on one training wheel.

Then we went on holiday with his bike in the boot of the car. We visited friends on a farm for an afternoon and he wanted to ride. I was too lazy to bolt the training wheels on so just turned the bars straight and he got on. He rode down the sloping house paddock without worry. When he got close to the barbed wire fence at the bottom I started to worry. Somehow he managed to turn OK and rode up again.

I don't know if it was the slow raising of the wheels that meant he used them less and less over time, or he just suddenly got the balance thing sorted on that day. That was in August and he would turn 4 in November.

He'd spent the previous three years sitting in the kiddy seat on my bike, does that give balance skill somehow?

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